Two weeks ago, Telangana’s Cyber Police arrested a gang of cyber thieves in the theft & sale of personal data of over 16 crore Indians. The scam is said to be the biggest in the country as it affects around 1/10th of the population. Incidents of cybercrime have been on the rise in India. As per the latest estimates, almost 1.4 million cyber security incidents were reported in years 2020 & 2021.

Interestingly, an analysis by cyber forensics revealed that hotspots of these rising cyber crimes are the smaller cities like Mewat, Jamtara, Azamgarh, Alwar, Bharatpur, Chittoor, Dhubri, Goalpara, Bhiwani, Jamui, Nawada, Durgapur & Asansol. One of the probable reason that may have led to cybercrime in these cities may be the combination of poor socio-economic profile and penetration of internet and smart phones in these cities.

Additionally, smaller cities are also becoming the arenas of many of these cybercrimes. An analysis by Quickheal suggests that cybercriminals often focus on smaller cities as people & businesses here may not be as aware of cyber security.

Realizing that awareness is the key, several cities launched awareness drives for the citizens. A Ranchi based NGO, CyberPeace Foundation, announced the launch of an awareness drive called cyber security cluster last month. Similarly, to fight cyberbullying, the women division of Ahmedabad police conducted focused group discussions with college students in February 2023. Last month Odisha government announced that the state saw a dip in cyber crime cases last year due to massive awareness among the citizens which was achieved through ads, text messages, meeting & social media campaigns on cyber safety.

At national level, GOI launched the online website called the National Cyber Crime Reporting portal to help the citizens to register complaints related to cybercrime, which can also be reached through the helpline number-1930. As per recommendations by Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre- the nodal agency established to curb cybercrime- the government has also recently blocked 500 apps to strengthen the cyber security.

Has anybody in your city been a victim of cybercrime? Read more here.